The Making and Unmaking of the Black American Mecca

At the intersection of West 125th Street and Lenox Avenue, new Harlem is trying to swallow up old Harlem. Next to a space-age Whole Foods on the southwest corner of the junction, a Jamaican trader sells venereal disease ointments no less than six days a week. (On the seventh day, he rests.) While Columbia-bound commuters might shuffle into the Amazon-owned chain grocer for heirloom tomatoes and artisanal kombuchas, he sits, stands, smokes, and serenades passersby with greetings and patois-wrapped endorsements like, “Health is wealth now, not shoes and clothes.” Wedged between an incense peddler and a newsstand, his wares include “Herp X,” a quick fix to “stop herpes outbreaks” through its potent combination of “super liquid food” and “rapid healing.”